(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the decomposition and sterilization of medical waste material and more particularly to the treatment of medical waste material with microwave energy in an inert atmosphere prior to disposal.
(2) Description of the Related Art
The disposing of medical waste material is a serious problem which is getting more and more serious as time goes on. Medical waste material must be properly treated before being disposed of in order to insure that soil or water supplies around dumping grounds or landfill areas will not become contaminated with dangerous organisms. Incineration of medical waste material, which has long been an important method of treating medical waste, must be carried out with great care to prevent discharge of dangerous waste material into the atmosphere. Along with need for methods which will handle medical waste material safely is the need to handle such material economically.
A number of methods for dealing with medical waste material have been patented. A number of these patents describe the use of microwave energy to heat the waste material often in conjunction with other types of processing, for example Robert C. Drake in U.S. Pat. No. 5,223,231 or Norihiro Kawashima et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,213,758. Minoru Fujimori et al in U.S. Pat. No. 5,237,938 describe an incinerator with a main burner into which a mixture of oil and water are injected to incinerate the medical waste material.
During the decomposition and sterilization of the medical waste material care must be taken to avoid discharging dangerous gases into the atmosphere. If microwave energy is used to heat medical waste material care must be taken to avoid waste material causing arcing in the vicinity of the rotary tank.